Social factors are key to identifying heart disease risk

Asking people simple questions about their social situation in addition to medical measures will give a more accurate picture of who might have a heart attack in the future, finds a study led by UCL researchers. The study, published this week in the European Heart Journal , shows for the first time, that factors such as educational qualifications, employment, marital status, mental health, BMI and physical activity could be crucial in identifying who is most at risk of heart disease. These factors were found to alter treatment decisions, about whether to use preventative drugs called statins or not, for as many as one in ten people. The authors say if the new model was implemented in England, this could lead to approximately 12,000 people being given different and more accurate recommendations about whether to start statins each year. Lead author of the study, Dr Taavi Tillmann (UCL Institute of Global Health) said: "Our study suggests that in terms of risk prediction, simple questionnaire measures on behavioural and psychosocial factors may be as informative as established biomedical risk factors such as blood pressure and cholesterol. This means that in England, conversations about such topics may become a routine part of the one million health checks that already take place in general practices every year. "Secondly, this discovery may allow some people to undertake sophisticated health checks fully online without leaving their house at all, which is well-timed given the ongoing risks of COVID-19." The research team looked at data from 20,000 participants across different parts of Europe who took part in cohort studies started over a decade ago.